Digital games, in particular games that require cooperative online play, are increasingly a social phenomenon that is shared by people in many different stages of their lives. These men and women engage with social structures of different types; clans, guilds, teams, corporations, and even empires. As they engage with these groups, they find themselves in a position of social and goal-oriented obligation to an organization (Chang & Zhang, 2008; Chen et al. 2008). They may feel social ties to others within the group and the need to help other team-members in order to pursue goal tasks. At the same time, research into leadership in online games indicates that players performing leadership tasks online also learn out-of-game skills for engaging in teamwork and bureaucratic structures (Reeves, et al., 2008). In working with their organization, then, the individual is engaging in social self-improvement that can be applied to situations in other social contexts besides gaming. Even in situations where the player feels like they do not wish to engage in leadership roles, the sense of obligation to their social relations within the organization can cause these players to “step up” and learn these skills (Bos & Shami, 2006; Butler, 2007). As the level of engagement increases, so does the impact that these different game-based interactions on the development of new generations of citizens and workers who will engage in social action and shared social experience.
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